The brand new MSI Claw 8 AI+ broke cowl simply a few days in the past, promising a brand new bigger 8-inch display screen and an improve to the brand new Intel Core Extremely 200 Lunar Lake processor. Nonetheless, as we’ve seen after getting up shut with the brand new system, there’s extra to it than simply these tweaks.
Whereas the primary iteration of the MSI Claw didn’t make a lot of a splash on our greatest handheld gaming PC information, it nonetheless did sufficient to at the very least make us intrigued about what a follow-up, Intel-powered rival to the AMD-powered Steam Decks and Asus ROG Allys of this world would appear like. Seeing it within the flesh solely heightens that anticipation.
The MSI Claw 8 AI+ might have a foolish identify, however the design of this handheld has been made far more interesting because of adjustments to its grips and general form. Very similar to evaluating the Asus ROG Ally X with the unique ROG Ally, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ has rounder, deeper grips that subtly flare out slightly extra in the direction of the underside, which ought to make the system really feel extra pure to carry.
We couldn’t fairly get our fingers in to achieve and ensure this, however the sides additionally seem like coated in rubber to assist grip, and on the very least the floor is textured, which once more ought to make for a greater buy on this moveable.
A lot of the controls seem like the identical as these on the unique MSI Claw, however the bumpers are visibly bigger and the menu buttons near the display screen are bigger too. Each adjustments ought to make it simpler to achieve and activate these options.
General, the design additionally feels extra, properly, second-gen. Along with the extra rounded edges, there’s additionally the two-tone black and cream coloration scheme, once more with the colour seemingly coming from a extra advanced doubleshot manufacturing course of, the place the casing could have gone via two totally different runs of an injection molding machine. The primary-generation product could have solely had one run to be produced.
The ratio of the display screen to the bezel and general system seems higher too, with the 8-inch panel filling the chassis higher than the 7-inch one in all previous. The display screen seems shiny and punchy too, although it’s exhausting to essentially gauge picture and movement high quality with only a static Home windows 11 desktop background on show.
It stays an IPS-type LCD, and it has good viewing angles and punchy colours, however some will probably be unhappy it hasn’t moved to an OLED panel just like the Steam Deck OLED. Sensibly, its decision can also be 1080p, reasonably than the over-specced 1440p display screen of the Lenovo Legion Go.
In response to the producer, different upgrades on the MSI Claw 8 AI+ embrace a bigger battery, a two-fan, two-heatpipe cooling system, “superior” corridor impact joysticks, and naturally there will probably be that a lot sooner, extra environment friendly Intel Lunar Lake CPU at its coronary heart. Its Xe2-based graphics, particularly, ought to drastically elevate the brand new Claw’s gaming efficiency, so long as Intel can present strong driver assist.
We bought to see the brand new Claw 8 AI+ whereas treading the boards of the Computex 2024 present flooring, the place we additionally noticed the brand new ROG Ally X and can quickly be dealing with the brand new Zotac Zone. For extra tales from the present, take a look at our Computex story hub.
